Iraq Running Out Of Weapons With Which To Fight ISIS

by JASmius



When last we checked in with the former country and now de facto Iranian province, it had functionally ceased to exist and was being overrun by the Islamic State as the vaunted "Iraqi Army" was being routed repeatedly by ISIS forces a tenth its size.  Nothing much has changed about any of this, other than that now the "Iraqi Army" is running out of weapons to abandon to ISIS because the "Iraqi government" is running out of oil money from whatever wells ISIS hasn't captured:

Iraq is running out of money.

Behind the front lines of the Iraqi desert, where the Nineveh provincial police are training to retake their homes in and around Mosul, they are short of one thing: weapons.

“We have been regrouped here since the fall of Mosul,” said Major Ayman, standing over his line of men in blue uniforms. “We have been waiting here for five months but we have no weapons.”...

In the last two months, a new foe has reared its head. The collapse in the price of oil on the world markets, thanks to a decision by Saudi Arabia to start a price war with its geopolitical foes Iran and Russia, has slashed the Iraqi government’s budget.

Around 90% of its income comes from oil, and a price cut from $140 at its peak, and from $80 a year ago to $40 today has had a major effect.

“Of course, it has affected all aspects of the Iraqi government, and the first impact is on the Ministry of Defence,” the defence minister, Khaled al-Obeidy, told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview.

That would presumably be because all the weapons we gave them are now already in ISIS's arsenal, and the Obama Regime has stingily refused to ship any more to Baghdad for consignment to their occupiers.  Which is frankly astonishing, actually.

However, with the Iran nuclear "deal" and consequent lifting of sanctions now shifting Iranian oil exports into maximum overdrive, and with the world petroleum market already glutted from Saudi overproduction and U.S. energy independence that Barack Obama shockingly has failed to ban, and with the "Iraqi government" having very few wells left to tap, their resources with which to acquire armaments from other sources are consequently and severely limited.

The solution - and additional problem - suggests itself.  Since Iraq is part of the Russo-Iranian-Syrian alliance, can Baghdad not simply put a military aid request "through channels" to their new friends and overlords?  And might the reason why that transaction is not going through be that the Russians and Iranians have no desire to see any weapons they might supply Iraq wind up in the same place that ours did - in ISIS hands - once the "Iraqi Army" flees in terror yet again?

Thus are the wages of avoiding "U.S. boots on the ground".and throwing away hard-won victories paid for in American blood and treasure.  Or, "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

Except, of course, if we were to attempt that now - even if WE had the troops or weapons or the means to get them there, which we don't - we'd just wind up in a war with Russia and Iran.  And Barack Obama "ends" wars, he does not fight them.

I'll stop now.  It's getting too depressing.